


a smudge -

by literaryFRIVOLOUSneophyte



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Microfic, Short, Sisters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-29
Updated: 2014-08-29
Packaged: 2018-02-15 06:04:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2218557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/literaryFRIVOLOUSneophyte/pseuds/literaryFRIVOLOUSneophyte
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>on france, that's all she ever got to feel like.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a smudge -

gavroche stops coming home and she sometimes sees him, fleetingly, in the streets. he's a a pebble in the rocks by now and she walks over him. the sounds of crunching underfoot are background noise to her. it doesn't even matter since most of the roads she walks on aren't paved. 

she wonders what a nice, warm bath would be like, to wash and brush her hair everyday, to scrub the grime out from under her fingernails, to be cradled in a bathtub of sweet-smelling water, the perfume of soap all around her and on her skin. her morning rituals are brief, get out the worst of the knots, smooth out her dirty dress, look down at her toes and sigh.

gavroche might be happier out there. free, and he didn't have to listen to their dad pacing or strange, burly men coming in at all hours. they treat éponine like a dog in rags, her dad throws her scraps of food when he feels charitable enough not to ignore her or beat her, her mother dies in prison. 

azelma sees rich men in the street and gets arrested once for spitting on a man with a cane that beat against the road, his eyes trying not to meet with anyone in the crowd around him, a cane that drummed out a sound like a gunshot over and over again as he kept a hand over his pocket and the other one tightly wrapped around the cane, almost vibrating with the itch to lash out at the penniless women around him, the gamin circling too close. a cane that disgusted azelma, and éponine, too, but she didn't do anything about it.

her sister doesn't remember the feel of pretty dresses, and éponine likes to think marius cares about her. but she is the only person that cares about azelma, and vise versa.

they run away when the other gets caught. it isn't as ignoble as it sounds. it's just their code, their way of living. gavroche was a part of it, but he was so young, and éponine couldn't sit there, so she stood in the way between him and their father's hand. after a week her last brother was out in the streets and, there, the code would never take any exceptions.


End file.
